A shorthanded goal from each team, including Brad Marchand’s third shorthanded strike of the season, has the Bruins leading the Islanders, 2-1, after two periods.

The Bruins fell victim to the old shorthanded penalty shot by Frans Nielsen. The Islanders center had a shorthanded breakaway but was tripped by Patrice Bergeron. A penalty shot was awarded, and Nielsen beat Tuukka Rask with a top-shelf backhander to tie the game at 3:41.

Then, with the Bruins shorthanded due to a David Krejci hooking penalty, Brad Marchand and Rick DiPietro both came chased after a puck at the top of the circle. DiPietro won the race, but Marchand blocked his bid, chasing after the puck to grab it behind the net and score with ease at 14:41. He’s now tied for thirst in the NHL with three shorthanded goals.

Milan Lucic scored his 14th goal of the season, a power play tally, and the Bruins lead the Islanders, 1-0, after a period.

It appeared that Lucic’s shot actually hit the right post, bounced of New York goalie Rick DiPietro and into the net. Marc Savard got the assist on the goal, registering his first point since his return from post-concussion symptoms.

DiPietro had the save of the period on Dennis Seidenberg. After giving up a big rebound off a shot from Nathan Horton, DiPietro had to lunge to stop Sedidenberg on the rebound.

The Bruins outshot the Islanders, 16-7, and Tuukka Rask didn’t really face much pressure. The Bruins are 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Islanders are 0-for-1. The Bruins will begin the second period on the man advatnage, as P.A. Parenteau went off for boarding with 10.2 seconds left in the period.

Adam McQuaid and Zenon Konopka squared off in the only fight of the period.

The Bruins made a pair of minor-league trades on Thursday, sending Jeff LoVecchio and Jordan Knackstedt to the Panthers in exchange for defenseman Sean Zimmerman and a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. They also landed forward Juraj Simek from the Lightning for Levi Nelson.

Both players will report to Providence. For more on the Bruins, visit their team page at weei.com/bruins.

It’s safe to say that Bruins rookie defenseman Steven Kampfer was up last night thinking about his NHL debut. Kampfer said Thursday morning that he didn’t fall asleep until 2:30 a.m. as he readied himself for a moment he’s been waiting for all his life.

Kampfer is stepping in for the injured Mark Stuart, who is out four-to-six weeks with a broken hand and dislocated ring finger. Yet Kampfer, a right-handed puck-mover, is nothing like the bigger, tougher, left-handed-er (?) Stuart. He’s more or less a better fit to replace Matt Hunwick. The two players went to college together at Michigan, and spoke on Wednesday night.

“I talked to Matt last night. We had a good conversation,” Kampfer said. “It was funny, because I had watched some clips of him. I was telling him how [the Bruins] wanted me to watch him, see how he played, and did a couple of things.”

Kampfer isn’t assuming that just because he was called up that he’ll stay with the big club until Stuart returns from injury in January or February. The B’s have options with their young defensemen and Kampfer knows it.

“I don’t think it’s a long opportunity. I think it’s day by day,” Kampfer said. “That’s how you go about it. You’re still on a two-way, and they can send you down at any time. You’ve just got to play well every day and show you deserve to be here. That’s my goal, is to be able to play strong every day and make sure I earn a spot here.”

The 22-year-old was in the last group of cuts before the team departed for Belfast on Sept. 29. The team elected to bring former Ohio State blue liner Matt Bartkowski over Kampfer, but Claude Julien said Thursday that they “could have flipped a coin” at the time.

The competition between the young defenders is a plus for an organization that hasn’t been able to carry a seventh defenseman since the trade of Hunwick. The kids know that someone could get the call at any time. They’re just using their time in the AHL to make sure it’s them when the time comes.

“We have a lot of good defensemen down in Providence. There’s a handful of guys that could have come up,” Kampfer said. “I was fortunate that I got the call, but at the same time, I have to prove why I’m here and I have to make sure that I’m helping this team win.”

Kampfer led all Providence defensemen with 16 points (3, 13) at the time of his call-up.

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Kampfer said on Wednesday that he spoke to his mom immediately following his call-up and that she was scurrying to get tickets to Boston from Michigan. Turns out she had success, as both of Kampfer’s parents, as well as his agent (Alex Schall) will be in attendance for Kampfer’s NHL debut.

His folks didn’t come out to Boston for the two rookie games, though they made two trips to Providence to see him play.

Marco Sturm was missing from the Bruins’ morning skate on Thursday morning. Following the skate, the team’s media relations folks said it was a scheduled day off for the rehabbing winger. Of course, one would have to assume the team is still looking to trade him to avoid the salary cap mess that would coincide with his activation.

Sturm said Wednesday that he isn’t sure whether he’ll be traded, but that he is not pleased with his situation. He waived his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal to the Kings last week, but the trade fell through.

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Tuukka Rask was first off the ice Thursday morning, an indication that he’ll be between the pipes against the lowly Islanders. Rask took a 4-1 loss last Sunday against the Thrashers and is 1-6-1 on the season with a 2.59 GAA and .926 save percentage.

Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart, sporting a cast and out four-to-six weeks with a broken hand, spoke on Thursday about how his injury occurred.

Though Stuart left the first period of Tuesday’s game, the injury actually dates back to last Thursday’s 8-1 win over the Lightning. Stuart blocked a shot from the point, getting hit in the right hand.

X-rays after the game were negative, and he played through pain and swelling for the rest of the night and in Saturday’s game.

“We just decided to see how it felt and look at it in a couple of days. It was a little sore. We taped it up for Toronto. It wasn’t feeling good, so we had planned on getting X-rays again after the game on Tuesday.”

It obviously didn’t make it that far. On his third shift of the night on Tuesday, Stuart made a pass and his hand “caved in,” as he both broke his hand and dislocated his ring finger at the same time.

Stuart said that by the time he had made the pass, his hand was “hanging on by a thread.”

This marks the second time in as many seasons that a hand injury will keep Stuart out for a prolonged period of time. He missed 26 games last season with a broken finger and an infection in his finger.

WithMark Stuart out for four-to-six weeks with a broken hand, the Bruins for the third time this season have lost a defenseman for an extended period of time. First, there wasJohnny Boychuk from Oct. 23 to Nov. 18. More recently, the team lost Matt Hunwick for, you know, ever when they sent the 25-year-old to the Avalanche in exchange for Colby Cohen.

If one were to meet the Bruins’ estimation in the middle and assume that Stuart will miss exactly five weeks from Wednesday, the day of the announcement, the B’s would be without his services for 16 games.

Amidst the one-at-a-time manner in which players have dropped off the Bruins’ blue line, it is no surprise that the Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont tweeted Wednesday that the team’s efforts in the trade market will not be limited to solving salary cap issues. Dupont noted that the team could try to swing a deal with a Western Conference team — he singled out the Stars and the Coyotes — to grab a defenseman.

Yet without having taken care of the first order of business — dumping salary — the team now instead must look at the in-house alternative for blueline help. Though the guess here (and likely everywhere else) is that Marco Sturmwill be out of town before long, the team, cuffed by the cap, can only look to the kids of Providence for now.

Matt Bartkowski, who had already gotten his free trip to the Europe when the B’s brought him along for the final two preseason games, was not the lucky guy when it came time to choosing who would be recalled. Instead it was Steven Kampfer, one of the six guys they released from camp the day they left for Belfast. Kampfer has 16 points for Providence Bruins this season, good for second on the team.

In speaking to the media following practice on Wednesday, Kampfer said the same thing any player stepping in due to injury says with the “I’m not trying to come in and replace _____” line. That makes plenty of sense, as he is smaller and less physical than Stuart. He’s more of a puck mover, while Stuart’s fists come in handy more than his hands.

As far as skill sets go, that actually isn’t a problem. If you think about it, and this dates back to last week’s trade of Matt Hunwick, Kampfer isn’t replacing Stuart. Adam McQuaid is. Kampfer is replacing his former Michigan teammate in Hunwick. McQuaid is the bigger, tougher and maybe safer defenseman, like Stuart. Kampfer fills the role of puck-mover that was left unoccupied following the trade of Hunwick.

Another plus for Kampfer that isn’t getting much attention — and perhaps a factor in the team’s decision to give him the call over Bartkowski — is that he’s a right-handed shot. With Kampfer in the lineup, the defense’s dexterity is now even at three lefties and three righties. Considering they opened the season with Johnny Boychuk as the only righty on the blueline, they have, through injury and loss via trade, seen a bit more balance in one respect.

It should also be interested in seeing how this impacts Stuart. He’s playing on a one-year deal worth $1.675 million and is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. He took the one-year pact after missing 26 games last season with a broken left pinky and an infection in his pinky.

The B’s probably wanted to see Stuart stay healthy before they showed him the money (and the years), and Stuart likely wanted to sign a big contract — the very one in which he’d play his prime years — after a season that warranted a bigger deal.

‘I expected after the season that I had if I was going to get a deal it was going to be a one-year deal and then see how I played,” Stuart said after signing the one-year deal in July. “Hopefully, I can have a great year this year and then hopefully, yeah, a long-term deal is in the future.’

Stuart has averaged 16:43 of ice time, which is right around where he sat last season (17:01). He’s got two assists, 23 penalty minutes, and is a plus-3 through 26 games.